The Catfishing Case That Ended In Tragedy: Renae Marsden

In 2010, Renae Marsden was an eighteen-year-old hairdresser’s apprentice who lived with her family in Sydney, Australia.

Teresa and Mark’s daughter also had two younger siblings. Everyone says that she was very close to her mother, so much so that they were not only mother and daughter but also friends.

That same year Renae discovered that her boyfriend, with whom she had been dating for two years, was cheating on her and although he tried to deny everything, it did not take effect because the girl had evidence of his infidelity.

But Renae immediately recovered from the breakup and a few weeks later she told her mother that her new happiness was due to the fact that she had met a boy and that she was in love with him.

His name was Brayden Spiteri and he was 23 years old. Camila Zeidan was this boy’s ex-girlfriend and Renae’s best friend. She was in charge of introducing them through a chat so that the girl would overcome the breakup with her ex-boyfriend.

Camila told him that she had already been with Brayden before but that she had no problem with them being together.

The boy sent her several photos and in fact in one of them he was dating Camila. This was something that Teresa didn’t like because when Renae showed her the snapshots she gave the feeling that she was still with her friend.

Even so, the woman decided to ignore this detail because her daughter was happy and had overcome the previous breakup.

For several weeks Renae and Brayden were texting each other at all times, however they never got to know each other in person because when they tried the boy always came up with something

There came a point where they parked to meet in person for later and what they did was strengthen their exclusively digital relationship.

The two were an online couple for almost a year until something horrible happened in January 2012.

The accident:

In January 2012, Renae received a message from Brayden telling her that she had had a motorcycle accident. He survived but Ronnie, his best friend and who was with him at that time, passed away.

As the days went by, Brayden was updating his situation to Renae. The most disheartening thing for her came when the young man told her that a judge had determined that the motorcycle accident occurred for driving recklessly. Because of this, he was accused of manslaughter and sentenced to two years in prison without the right to visits.

But that didn’t stop Renae and Brayden’s relationship, because according to the young man he managed to get his family to smuggle a mobile phone. That way he could communicate with his virtual girlfriend.

During the stage in which Brayden was imprisoned, the relationship between the couple became even more entrented, so much so that they planned to get married at the end of 2013 when the young man was released.

Renae got fully involved in the preparations for her future wedding, for this she contacted a photographer and even bought a beautiful tiara on ebay. What she could suspect is that his dreams would fall apart as if it were a house of cards.

On August 5, 2013, that is, two months before the boy theoretically released from prison, he decided to break up his courtship with Renae. As you can imagine, she was destroyed.

That same day Brayden sent a message to Teresa, the mother, to tell her that he was worried about her daughter and that apparently the young woman was talking to him about taking her own life.

“Get your daughter fixed, she’s trying to take her own life.”

“Please explain to me why a young woman would do that.”

“Ask her yourself.”

At that moment Teresa talked to Renae about the breakup but she told her that she was fine and that she was not going to hurt herself.

That afternoon the girl told her mother that she was going to go out with some friends... Unfortunately she never saw her alive again.

The facts:

A few hours after Renae left the house to theoretically go with some friends, Teresa received a text message from her daughter that said the following:

“Mom, I love you very much and I’m sorry for the pain I’m about to cause you. Although you can still talk to me. Just give my name and I’ll be there.”

Teresa immediately tried to call Renae, but her phone was already turned off.

She also sent her a text message and called Camila. The girl told her that she had also received a somewhat strange message from her friend, so the two met to go out and look for her. Unfortunately, they didn’t get his whereabouts.

At about 9 at night the police arrived at Renae’s house and they had discovered the girl’s car abandoned in a strange area but since when checking the surroundings they found no trace of her they decided to go to her home to see if she was there.

Renae’s family told the police about the situation they were in, so everyone went to The Gap, a steep cliff overlooking the ocean where the girl’s car appeared.

Once there, Teresa discovered Renae’s shoes on one of the highest points of the cliff, right in front of the fence that prevented people from getting too close to the edge.

The police discovered a camera pointing at that section of the cliffs. When they looked at the images, they saw something that shocked them.

In them, Renae appears walking along the path at night. Suddenly the young woman takes off her shoes, leaves them and jumps the fence. For a few seconds she walks along the edge of the cliff, in fact when she peeks out there is terror on her face.

Then go back a few steps until her back is supported against the fence. At that moment she is seen grabbing her cell phone to write something.

Some time later it was learned that he sent three text messages: One to her mother that we already know the content, another to Camila and Brayden whose content was never revealed. After this, Renae is seen as she throws the phone and jumps.

The girl’s body was never recovered and her death was declared a suicide.

Brayden disappeared after Renae’s death. The young woman’s family tried to contact him but it was impossible. For this reason they called the police to help them to communicate with the Goulburn prison, which was where he was serving his sentence.

An agent called that prison but was informed that there was no inmate there named Brayden Spiteri.

They could never find Brayden because this person didn’t exist, who was behind all these messages was Camila, Renae’s friend.

The reconstruction:

In May 2020, that is, 7 years after the events, the investigation into the death of Renae Mardsen was brought to court. Thanks to that, it was possible to know what happened.

Camila met Renae in high school and was always very possessive with her, so much so that she wanted total control over her friend.

The first thing Camila did was convince Renae that her previous boyfriend she had been with for two years didn’t love her and was cheating on her.

It was she herself who was in charge of falsifying text messages to support her claims. Renae believed her and broke up with him.

Then, Camila immediately connected Renae with Brayden, who was only Camila on the other side of the computer and the phone.

Everything was twisted when two months before she died, Renae trusted Brayden that her friend Camila was toxic, very controlling and that for this reason she no longer wanted to be her friend.

It seems that at that moment Camila became furious and decided that the only way to take revenge on her friend and regain control was to make Brayden break up with her.

Two months later, on August 5, 2013, Brayden broke up with Renae.

The young woman tried to communicate with him but did not respond to his messages. Then he called Goulburn prison for the first time to ask about the boy, it was there that he found out that there was no inmate with that name.

Renae realized that Brayden was unreal or that he had been lying to him all the time so it is believed that for this reason she decided to take her own life.

Camila went up to the witness stall to testify. She admitted that she was ‘Brayden’ and that the boy had never existed... But she justified the reason for her actions.

Renae and she had a loving relationship. Between the two they created the character of Brayden to be together despite the disapproval of the others.

But Camila’s justification didn’t make sense since the police managed to get the text messages that Renae and Brayden exchanged. These left no doubt that the girl was being deceived.

Renae’s mother told the court that during the time her daughter was with Brayden she dedicated her mental and emotional life to this supposed boy. She put everything on hold for him and lived through her mobile phone, receiving and sending messages to a fictitious person.

It could also be known that the photos that Camila sent to impersonate Brayden belonged to a boy named Cameron Lang. This boy was shocked when he learned from the press that his photos had been used to deceive a person online with a result of death.

Cameron said that he didn’t know either of the two girls and that although he didn’t remember Camila, he was convinced that the photo in which they went out together was taken years ago in a bar.

Finally, Camila did not face any charge for her actions since catfishing is not considered a crime in Australia. The girl has never been responsible for her actions and has not apologized to the family of which she was her friend.

The Mardsen family does not understand how Camilla can get away with what happened since for them she is clearly to blame for the fate that her daughter ran.

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